Laney’s greening up this summer with new ways to turn your lunchtime food scraps to living soil — right here on campus! Throw down with your friends at the Laney Grow Down, this coming July 14th at the campus community garden.

• Learn how to grow food and turn food scraps into soil!
• Throw down in the garden or help build worm compost bins!
• Hear inspiring speakers and local hip-hop artists!
• Bring your fresh ideas for designing a campus Eco-Structure!
• Enter the art & multimedia design contest for a chance to win $250!

I am happy to report that today I received a letter from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which informed me that the Commission has taken action to remove all four Peralta Colleges from probation.

This is extremely good news and reflects the hard work of our Accreditation Teams, led by Vice Chancellor Debbie Budd, and the leadership shown by our Board of Trustees.

We worked very hard to resolve issues related to information systems, governance and financial procedures that were raised by the Commission. A highly qualified senior management team has been diligently working on accreditation issues since December 2009, and their work has paid off with the welcome news that probation status has been removed.

While the Commission has issued a warning – the lowest-level status alert – and made several recommendations for continued improvement, I am very pleased that our colleges have been removed from probation.

I want to thank the Accreditation Teams at the Colleges and the District Office for their unwavering and diligent work to ensure the continued accreditation of Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, and Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland.

The Commission’s report will shortly be posted on our Web site, and I will keep our community informed by releasing further information as the Accreditation Teams work on their follow-up reports to the Commission.

OAKLAND, CA – Peralta Community College District Trustee Abel Guillén will receive the Elected Official of the Year award from the East Bay Young Democrats (EBYD) at the group’s June 30th celebration. A Peralta Trustee since 2006, Guillén has provided valuable leadership to the four East Bay colleges – Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, and Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland.

“I am honored to receive this recognition from one of the most effective and diverse organizations fighting for young people in the East Bay,” said Guillén. “This acknowledgement sends a message to our students and young people, that, collectively, we have the power to create change in our community.”

The East Bay Young Democrats (EBYD) is the region’s premier Democratic club for working people under 36 years old. The group helps shape the Democratic Party for the next generation and promotes the interests of young adults in local, state and national politics.

“We are proud to be recognizing the strong leadership of Abel Guillén who is a community organizer and grassroots leader,” said EBYD president Rebecca Saltzman. “Abel is a proven leader and strong advocate for our community, and as a Trustee of the Peralta Community Colleges Board, he has fought passionately to secure access to a quality, affordable education.”

“It is an honor to be associated with such a dynamic group of elected officials who are past recipients of this award, and who are fighting everyday for our community both locally and in Sacramento,” Guillén said.

Reelected to the Board of Trustees last fall, Guillén plans to continue strengthening Peralta Colleges’ partnerships in the community. “Abel’s journey to become the youngest member ever to serve as Peralta Board President serves as an inspiration for young Democrats throughout the East Bay and beyond,” Said Saltzman.

“We are very pleased at the Peralta Colleges to see one of our Trustees honored in this way,” said Dr. Wise E. Allen, Chancellor of the Peralta Community College District. “It is truly something we can all be proud of, the contributions that Trustee Guillén has made to our district and the community.”

The East Bay Young Democrats’ “Blue & Green” third annual awards gala honoring Guillén will be held Thursday, June 30, at Numi Tea Garden, 2230 Livingston St., Oakland, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 for members and $40 for non-members. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Event tickets may be purchased online at http://www.ebyd.org/site/events/annual-gala.

CubaCaribe is the second to the last show in the theatre until Fall. Next Fri-Sun Naganuma Dance presents a dance of healing working with performers who have Parkinson’s disease. Please come out and fill the theatre for these wonderful local dance companies, before your summer break kicks in.

considers what psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross refers to as The Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.Grief premiers with guest choreographers Joti Singh and Nelson Reyes.

The company will also re-visit La Madre, which they premiered in 2005 as a tribute to Ramos’ mother.

Oakland, CA – In June, 2006, voters in Albany, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont – the six cities that make up the Peralta Community College District passed Peralta Colleges’ $390 million Measure A bond by an overwhelming 74.7 percent, one of the highest support rates for a community college bond measure in the state.

“The 30,000 students of Berkeley City College, College of Alameda and Oakland’s Laney and Merritt Colleges are the big winners,” replied Dr. Wise Allen, Chancellor of the Peralta Community College District.

The sale of bonds went towards renovating aging classrooms, building new science and technology labs and modernizing facilities that are decades old, all so that the Peralta Colleges can continue to provide a first-rate educational environment for the community’s students.

A Measure A Projects tour of three campuses – Berkeley City College, College of Alameda and Laney College in Oakland took place April 14, 2011 from 9am – 1pm.

“We are pleased to able to escort the community and stakeholders on a tour of all the needed work, renovations, and repairs to our colleges. It was an opportunity to present how Measure A bond monies were productively spent for infrastructure that benefits education in our community and the constituents we server,” said Dr. Sadiq Bello Ikharo, Vice Chancellor of General Services.

Several organizations, including Assembly member Nancy Skinner’s office, Oakland’s Chamber of Commerce Public Policy office, the Oakland Latino’s Merchant Association, members of the Measure A Citizen’s Oversight Committee, Peralta Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, Student Trustee Jurena Storm and Peralta staff were represented on the tour.

Drs. Allen and Ikharo greeted participants and the group viewed a PowerPoint presentation of Merritt College’s upgrades, including its photovoltaic (solar panels), lighting, allied health facility and its new library swing space, before boarding vans to the other colleges. Each college then toured the group of their newly renovated spaces: Berkeley City College showcased its classrooms, multi-media studio, auditorium and shared faculty offices; College of Alameda presented its new tennis courts, dance studio, dental lab, and student one-stop center; Laney College highlighted its athletic field, parking lots, and the newly renovated Laney Bistro, part of its culinary kitchen, where the group enjoyed a sampling of lunch items, prepared by culinary students.

During the tour, one faculty member stated, “ We are pleased to express our enthusiasm about Measure A funds, because our educational facility needs have finally been addressed.”

Measure A Citizen’s Oversight Committee member, Polly Amerin remarked, “It was an excellent tour… there was enough to impress us all.”

Federal and state laws require the Peralta Community College District to adjust its board of trustee district boundaries every ten years to balance populations based on current US Census Bureau Population Data. The redistricting process will change the boundaries of the districts and may change the trustee districts in which individual residents reside. The District welcomes community input on potential redistricting options, and hopes to hear from community stakeholders and their opinions on the alternative proposals at four public meetings to be held at the District’s college campuses.

At these public forums, four scenarios for potential new boundary configurations will be presented for review and comment. For each of these four scenarios, written descriptions and demographic information will also be provided.

Public Comment Meetings for the Peralta Community College Redistricting Process are as follows:

Oakland PEN prize-winning poets Andrena Zawinski (Laney) and Clifton Ross (Berkeley City College) will be honored by the Peralta Board of Trustees at their meeting Tuesday, May 24 at 7 pm. The Board meeting will be at the District Office, 333 East Eighth St., down the street from Laney College.Andrena Zawinski won for her collection of poetry, SOMETHING ABOUT from Blue Light Press in San Francisco. Clifton Ross won for his book of poetry, Translations from Silence: New and Selected Poems, Freedom Press. Andrena Zawinski and Clifton Ross are part-time English instructors.

PEN Oakland, dubbed “the blue collar PEN” by the New York Times, was founded in 1989 by Ishmael Reed, who came up with the idea, and co-founders Floyd Salas,Reginald Lockett and Claire Ortalda, in order to “promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the media as to the nature of multi-cultural work.” PEN Oakland affiliated with International PEN in 1990 and soon launched the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Awards for multicultural U.S. literature.